Here is another article on the same theme. An interesting writer about startups is Paul Graham
http://www.paulgraham.com/ , and a good book is "Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days"
http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-12-03/business/17326433_1_silicon-valley-high-tech-thinkersLog on, drop out, cash in / These top techies weren't leery about leaving school
December 03, 2006|By Jessica Guynn, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Aaron Swartz dropped out of high school after one year to study on his own. Then he dropped out of college after one year to seek his high-tech fortune. He was still in his teens a year later when he hit the jackpot, selling his startup in October to Wired Digital for an undisclosed but lottery-like payout.
With his boyish mien and more geek credentials than engineers twice his age, the suddenly wealthy Swartz belongs to a new generation of young, brainy geeks who began booting up and logging on when their friends were still watching "Sesame Street." Before they were old enough to drive, they landed paying gigs. Now that another high-tech boom is heating up Silicon Valley, more of these technologically developed but underage techies are dropping out and starting up.
Theirs is the stuff of classic Silicon Valley mythology: young people deserting higher learning for high technology to follow in the famous footsteps of Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell. These dropouts barely raise an eyebrow in high-tech circles, where their worth is measured in real-world smarts, not Ivy-League degrees.
Of course, Silicon Valley has always thrived on youth. Virtually every revolution there has been fueled not by fossilized executives but by an anarchistic youth counterculture experimenting with technology.
"Everything that would get you detention at school will get you funding in Silicon Valley," said Paul Saffo, a valley forecaster and essayist who has been exploring technological change and its impact on business and society for more than two decades.
And that culture can be a powerful draw. Max Levchin, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign graduate who sold the company he co-founded, PayPal, to eBay for $1.5 billion when he was just 26, uses his blockbuster success to persuade students at his alma mater not to follow his example. He makes the case that young people should seize the fleeting opportunity to get a different kind of education.
"You are essentially taking a class in real-life company-building on the nickel of a venture capitalist," Levchin said. "It's a pretty unbeatable deal."
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